1.10 - Raised by Another

Title’s significance: Straight out of the psychic’s dialogue – Claire is the only person who is supposed to raise her baby.

Recap: In flashbacks, Claire’s pregnancy was unexpected; she wanted to follow through with it, but her beau Thomas ditched her. After twice consulting an apparently legit psychic who told her that no one else can raise the child, Claire decided she didn’t want to give the baby up for adoption; she followed his advice, though, and ended up on Flight 815. On the island Claire’s having strange dreams – in one, she’s already given birth, and a creepy black-and-white-eyed Locke warns her that she lost Aaron and now everyone else has to suffer. She wakes up screaming, and for some reason her hands are bloody. With Claire’s due date approaching, Charlie amps up the flirtation and the concern for Claire. Hurley elects to take a census of the island, while Jack doubts that anything really happened to Claire. Sayid returns to camp with news that the survivors aren’t alone on the island. When contractions kick in (it’s actually a false labor), Claire summons Jack, but Ethan arrives, just as Hurley realizes that Ethan was never on the plane.

Thoughts: I liked this episode a lot, even on a second viewing. Claire’s got a very interesting backstory, and her flashbacks almost always add some new wrinkle to the larger story of LOST. I also like how Hurley, who’s usually just comic relief, gets an important role in introducing a central mystery to the show. It was with this episode that we started to get a sense of the larger issues at stake on this show and a sense of the villainy at play beyond just bumblebees and polar bears.

Favorite moment: For fun, it’s the barter scene between Sawyer and Hurley – “You sure know how to butter a man up, Stay-Puft.” That, and the scenes with Richard Malkin, just for pure mythological significance.

Characters introduced (in order):

• THOMAS, the father of Claire’s baby
• RICHARD MALKIN, an especially persistent psychic that Claire consults, who’s initially distressed but who eventually tells her that no one else must raise her child

What we learned:

• Jack talked in his sleep.
• There’s something troubling about Kate’s past with her mom.
• There’s some kind of supernatural issue with Claire’s baby; someone on the island is interested in it.
• Claire puts at least some stock in the supernatural, both because of her visit to the psychic and because of her interest in horoscopes.
• Hurley’s real name is Hugo Reyes.
• Boone is a liberal.
• Charlie has conveniently kicked his drug habit off-screen.
• Hurley undertakes a census, which reveals that one of the survivors – Ethan – wasn’t on the plane.

Questions:

• What does Claire’s dream/nightmare mean?
• Why can’t anyone else raise Claire’s baby?
• Why does Claire take such offense at Charlie calling her “crazy”?
• Why won’t Hurley reveal why he doesn’t use his real name?
• Did the psychic know that Flight 815 was going to crash?
• Who’s Ethan with, if he wasn’t on the plane?

Things that are going to be important in Season Six:

• Based on what happened in Season Five with Un-Locke and the apparition of Christian with Claire, I think that the dream about B&W-Eyed Locke is going to come back into play somehow.
• Everything points to Claire needing to raise the baby herself – right down to the pens not working on the adoption forms (which reminds me a little of the thing Tom says in Season Four where the island can affect people even off-island). What significance will Claire and her baby have in the final season?

Just for the interest of those who really want to get a sense of how important I think Claire’s dream is, I’m linking to the video on YouTube: